Brrrrr. It has been nippy here for a while now. Enough is enough! Of course, when we have many consecutive days over 100 degrees this summer, I'll complain about that also. The cold weather (don't laugh you East Coast and Northern people!) reminded me of my previous residence in New York State (no, not New York City - I shudder to think of living there).
This morning in his sermon Brother Steve used an analogy that tied my residence in New York State together with my father. His sermon series is "Be Encouraged" and today's subject was "You Have Hope." It was a good sermon, I thought.
One thing stuck out near the end though. He likened the faith we have in God to that of a small child riding on his daddy's lap on a roller coaster. The small child is scared to death as the roller coaster zips up and down and round and round but he knows his daddy won't let anything happen to him. If we think of ourselves as the small child and the daddy as God, you get the connection.
We need to remember that no matter what we go through in this life and how scared we are sometimes, our Loving Father will protect us from evil and take us into His house when our time on this earth is done. Sometimes when strife strikes, we temporarily forget how God cares for us. Perhaps we need to make a point of reminding ourselves each and every day.
So, how does this tie in to my father and my residence in New York State? It made me think what a wonderful earthly father I had. Of course, I didn't always think of him quite that way when I was a kid. But, looking back I can see clearly he was a wonderful father. As I've said before, my father worked full time at IBM at a blue collar job. Before and after work he took care of our cows - usually 1 milk cow and a couple of black Angus calves we were raising for beef. Some people will cringe when I say we played with those black Angus calves all year until they were ready to head to the butcher - then we ate them. But, that's how it is on a farm. My father was very good to his cows. See spoiled cows for more insight on how my father treated his cows. For several years we also had chickens that my father cared for and collected eggs from each day. One year we had 2 pigs (Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum) - we ate them, too.
My father also had a big garden each year. We never lacked for fresh sweet corn and tomatoes (and other things I don't remember probably because they weren't my favorites). Every winter he would feed the pheasants in our back yard and every summer they would peck the heck out of many of his tomatoes. He swore he wouldn't feed the pheasants anymore but then winter would come around and he would take pity on them and feed them. He was truly a soft-hearted man.
One section of our pasture was kind of swampy. One winter my father decided that would be a good place for us kids to ice skate. He single-handedly by hand dug out the swampy area so it would make a barbell-shaped skating area for us. We had many days after school and on weekends during the winter when we and our friends would be out in the field skating and having a great deal of fun.
My father was 50ish before he ever married for the only time. My mother was about 20 years younger than he. They had 3 children of which I am the oldest. Looking back on all my father did, I am truly amazed. He was in his mid-50's when we moved to that small farm. So, he was not a spring chicken when he did all the work that he did. I don't ever remember him complaining about it. He was a truly Godly man although I did not recognize that at the time. I have never met anyone like him in all my 65 years but I suspect there are 1 or 2 out there somewhere.
Blessings,
Mary
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
The Story of Joseph Applies to Each of Us
I am currently in a Precept Bible Study Keeping Your Focus When Your Dreams Are Shattered - a Study on Joseph (Genesis 37-50) for 4 weeks and then Exodus - Let My People Go for 11 weeks.
Joseph was the firstborn of Jacob's second wife, Rachel. Rachel was Jacob's true love although due to some subterfuge by her father he ended up marrying Rachel's sister Leah first and he didn't love her. There was a "battle of the wombs" between the two women which eventually involved each of their maids. Talk about dysfunctional families! Among the 4 of them, Jacob fathered 12 children. Joseph was Rachel's first born and Jacob's favorite son. In fact, Jacob gave Joseph a special varicolored tunic (I think we've all heard of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat"). While poking around to see what was said online about this musical show, I came across a synopsis that tells much of the story of Joseph:
"In this retelling of the Biblical story, Joseph is a handsome young man who is his father's favorite child, able to interpret dreams, and the bearer of an amazing coat. These facts lead Joseph's eleven brothers to become insatiably jealous. Thus, they sell Joseph into slavery to some passing Ishmaelites. After refusing the advances of his owner's wife, Joseph is sent to jail. Once in jail, he quickly becomes popular due to his ability to interpret dreams. The Pharaoh soon hears of Joseph's ability and appoints him to the post of Number Two man in Egypt. Years later, Joseph's now starving brothers arrive in Egypt and ask Joseph, whom they don't recognize, for assistance. Joseph, in turn, gives his brothers a scare, but eventually grants them all they desire, reveals his identity, and reunites the family."
Joseph went through a lot of trials during his early years: his brothers hated him and sold him to Ishmaelites headed to Egypt who later sold him to Potiphar who was the chief executioner for the Pharaoh. God was with Joseph and he did a marvelous job looking after all of Potiphar's property UNTIL "Mrs. Potiphar" tried to seduce him and he rejected her and ran out of the house. Of course, Mrs. P. was very upset so she decided to lie and tell her dear Mr. P. that Joseph came to her. While Mr. P. was angry, it would seem from the wording of Genesis that Mr. P. probably didn't believe his wife. So, rather than kill Joseph (which would have been the appropriate response), Mr. P. put Joseph in the jail which he controlled and he put Joseph in charge of everything there because he knew what a good job Joseph would do.
Up to this point, Joseph's life is pretty much not his own. He is owned and does what he is told. He had quite a difficult life.
Skipping over lots of important stuff here. Eventually, Joseph ended up working for Pharaoh and he became the second dude of Egypt answerable only to Pharaoh himself.
So, you may ask, what's the point? Why relate the story of Joseph? I have an answer.
When I returned home from my class, I read my email. I came across a daily devotional that I get from Greg Laurie that I thought directly related to Joseph's story. Here is a portion:
"A traveler who was visiting a logging area in the northwestern United States watched with great interest as a lumberjack walking alongside a mountain stream periodically jagged his sharp hook into a log and separated it from the others. The traveler asked the logger what he was doing.
"Well, these logs may all look alike to you," the logger said, "but I recognize that some of them are quite different. The ones that I let pass are from trees that grow in a valley, where they are always protected from the storms. The grain on those logs is rather course. But the logs I pull aside come from high up in the mountains, where they are beaten by strong winds from the time they are quite small. This toughens the trees and gives them a fine grain. We save these for choice work. They are too good to be used for ordinary lumber."
Maybe you are facing winds of adversity right now, and you wonder why. Could it be that God is saving you for a choice work? Could it be that He is allowing you to go through hardship so you will be able to do something unique that He has in store for you?"
Joseph was the firstborn of Jacob's second wife, Rachel. Rachel was Jacob's true love although due to some subterfuge by her father he ended up marrying Rachel's sister Leah first and he didn't love her. There was a "battle of the wombs" between the two women which eventually involved each of their maids. Talk about dysfunctional families! Among the 4 of them, Jacob fathered 12 children. Joseph was Rachel's first born and Jacob's favorite son. In fact, Jacob gave Joseph a special varicolored tunic (I think we've all heard of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat"). While poking around to see what was said online about this musical show, I came across a synopsis that tells much of the story of Joseph:
"In this retelling of the Biblical story, Joseph is a handsome young man who is his father's favorite child, able to interpret dreams, and the bearer of an amazing coat. These facts lead Joseph's eleven brothers to become insatiably jealous. Thus, they sell Joseph into slavery to some passing Ishmaelites. After refusing the advances of his owner's wife, Joseph is sent to jail. Once in jail, he quickly becomes popular due to his ability to interpret dreams. The Pharaoh soon hears of Joseph's ability and appoints him to the post of Number Two man in Egypt. Years later, Joseph's now starving brothers arrive in Egypt and ask Joseph, whom they don't recognize, for assistance. Joseph, in turn, gives his brothers a scare, but eventually grants them all they desire, reveals his identity, and reunites the family."
Joseph went through a lot of trials during his early years: his brothers hated him and sold him to Ishmaelites headed to Egypt who later sold him to Potiphar who was the chief executioner for the Pharaoh. God was with Joseph and he did a marvelous job looking after all of Potiphar's property UNTIL "Mrs. Potiphar" tried to seduce him and he rejected her and ran out of the house. Of course, Mrs. P. was very upset so she decided to lie and tell her dear Mr. P. that Joseph came to her. While Mr. P. was angry, it would seem from the wording of Genesis that Mr. P. probably didn't believe his wife. So, rather than kill Joseph (which would have been the appropriate response), Mr. P. put Joseph in the jail which he controlled and he put Joseph in charge of everything there because he knew what a good job Joseph would do.
Up to this point, Joseph's life is pretty much not his own. He is owned and does what he is told. He had quite a difficult life.
Skipping over lots of important stuff here. Eventually, Joseph ended up working for Pharaoh and he became the second dude of Egypt answerable only to Pharaoh himself.
So, you may ask, what's the point? Why relate the story of Joseph? I have an answer.
When I returned home from my class, I read my email. I came across a daily devotional that I get from Greg Laurie that I thought directly related to Joseph's story. Here is a portion:
"A traveler who was visiting a logging area in the northwestern United States watched with great interest as a lumberjack walking alongside a mountain stream periodically jagged his sharp hook into a log and separated it from the others. The traveler asked the logger what he was doing.
"Well, these logs may all look alike to you," the logger said, "but I recognize that some of them are quite different. The ones that I let pass are from trees that grow in a valley, where they are always protected from the storms. The grain on those logs is rather course. But the logs I pull aside come from high up in the mountains, where they are beaten by strong winds from the time they are quite small. This toughens the trees and gives them a fine grain. We save these for choice work. They are too good to be used for ordinary lumber."
Maybe you are facing winds of adversity right now, and you wonder why. Could it be that God is saving you for a choice work? Could it be that He is allowing you to go through hardship so you will be able to do something unique that He has in store for you?"
This is exactly what God is doing with Joseph. God has big plans for Joseph and He is toughening and molding Joseph to be ready to accept the heavy duties God has in store for him: providing a safe place for Jacob's family (the Israelites) to grow and prosper until it was God's time to draft Moses to lead them out of Egypt towards the Promised Land.
Bringing that idea to today's world, are there times when you feel you just can't deal with where you are or what's going on in your life right now? Perhaps God is molding you for something in the future. Joseph was a God-fearing man filled with integrity, trustworthiness, honesty and all that goes along with being a Godly young man. God grew him until he was able to do God's work in God's way. Is that what God is doing in you right now? Or perhaps your life is going smoothly right now but you may run into difficulties in the future. When that happens, remember Joseph and move forward with integrity, trustworthiness, honesty and look upward to God for the answers.
Blessings,
Mary
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